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Future of limited-access parkway appears bright

The future of a proposed parkway from Fountain Lake to the current eastern terminus of Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway extension appears bright.

But expansion was once doubtful.

“It wasn’t delayed — it was dead for a while,” Paul Pool told fellow members of the Hot Springs Village Property Owners’ Association governmental affairs committee at its March meeting.

With highway construction costs soaring and the Federal Highway Trust Fund shrinking, it appeared the 5.5-mile extension wouldn’t materialize.

By slimming the concept from a full-blown four-lane divided highway to a two-lane limited-access parking, the potential cost was slashed.

Village leaders never gave up on the project, and were rewarded with the Tri-Lake Metropolitan Planning Organization and Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce setting the project as a future funding priority.

Hot Springs and Garland County leaders have also written letters to the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department in support of funding in the 2016-2019 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP. Federal-aid projects must be included in the STIP before Federal Highway Administration or Federal Transit Administration can authorize the expenditure of federal funds.

“A lot of this goes back to the 2010 economic impact study,” Pool said, citing research conducted by University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

UALR quantified the Village’s economic clout and the impact it could have on surrounding cities. Pool said that once community leaders and businesses in Garland County learned of the Village’s resources and per-capita income, they wanted improved highway access in hopes of gaining a larger slice of the economic pie.

Hot Springs National Park and the Whittington Park neighborhood group have expressed support for the parkway. Other parkway benefits could include reducing traffic on Gorge Road and Park Avenue.

It would take several STIP cycles to fund the project, so the earliest completion date might be in the mid-2020s.

Dick Breckon noted that the state has asked the Garland County judge to identify the required local support for the project.

Bob Shoemaker said at February’s GAC meeting the highway funding is an example of how long-term efforts can produce long-term benefits. Pool announced in February the state’s approval of federal safety funds – which requires no local match – for improving Highway 5 from near Crow to Salt Creek Road in Benton.

A month later Pool announced the state had approved another project sought by GAC, paving Highway 5 from the Saline-Garland county line to near the Highway 128 intersection.

The project also includes a small amount of paving south of the highways 5-7 intersection.